“No, I’m not trying to hurt you.” Gary pulled a needle from his pocket and uncapped it. “I took a cue from your book, and while I was in Bunker 753, finding the reversal serum, I tookanother one. This one is used for when a hucow is no longer breedable. Goodbye Myrtle, forever.”
Myrtle’s eyes grew wide and she fought but Gary was faster. He stuck the needle in her neck, euthanizing her. Her head dropped instantly and her body went limp.
The room fell silent.
“Is she really dead?” Eleanor asked.
Gary looked up, blinking. “Oh yes. This medicine is strong. I’m going to take her to the incinerator now. Would you two mind helping?”
Callahan and I hurried to help him untie Myrtle and lift her body.
“I’ll take her out. Just show me the way.” Callahan hauled her body over his shoulder. Looking at her like this, she seemed so small, so innocent, so… sad.
I had no idea she’d had those feelings for me. She’d seemed so normal when we met the first time. I had no indication that there was something not right.
As the four of us trekked to the elevator and went down to the basement of the center, I thought about everything. Did I regret anything? Was I angry for being manipulated? Did I feel guilty about what we’d put Eleanor through?
No.
I wasn’t angry at any of it because if I hadn’t been convinced to help Myrtle, I would have never met Eleanor or Callahan, and now I didn’t want to imagine my life without them. I’d never thought of myself as someone who could be tied down to anyone, or even two people, but now I didn’t want to go back to Heathen Heights solo. We were all part of each other’s lives now.
I held Eleanor’s hand as we went down the elevator. I hugged her tightly as Callahan and Gary positioned Myrtle’s body on the metal slab and pushed her into the large fire.
Gary took us back to the top floor after he locked the incinerator.
“Well, it’s been nice seeing different faces, but respectfully, I think it’s time your visit comes to an end.” Gary was polite, but firm. He liked his privacy, and I understood. We’d invaded that. I nodded.
Boone, Bonnie, Cherry, and Soda came from another door and ran to us. They were alive!
Boone threw himself against me, hugging me tight. “You made it man! Gary said he wasn’t sure if he could get to you guys in time.”
In time for what?
The memory of locking myself in the bathroom with my pistol, and what I’d just been about to do before he came, flashed in my mind. Thank Atlas Adam he made it.
“I have packs ready for you. They have rations, upgraded medical kits, and more ammunition. It should get you home. And then, please forget about this place,” Gary said.
“Understood.” Callahan saluted him, but then frowned. “Actually, Gary, we came for a reason. I don’t know how I feel leaving without accomplishing that.”
“And what was that?” Gary raised his eyebrows.
“Opening all the bunkers.”
Gary took in his words, nodding, but saying nothing. Finally, he spoke.
“You realize how much chaos that will bring to the wastelands?”
“I do, but they deserve freedom.”
Gary looked from Cal to all of behind him.
“I see. Well, let’s do it then.” He turned and we followed him to his quarters. He took us to a secret room hidden behind a mirror. Inside were thousands of television screens and a control panel.
“You just have to press that large red button, and type in the code.”
“That’s it?”
“It will launch the TRANSFORM part of TEST. The doors to the above will open, along with secret medical stores that hold the serums they will need to take to survive up above.”
